Blue Shield Delays Rate Hike After Nurses’ Protest
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How’s this for a demonstration of cause and effect?
Cause—Yesterday, some 200 activists, led by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) rallied outside Blue Shield’s San Francisco corporate headquarters to protest the health insurance giant’s premium hikes of as much as 59 percent for California consumers.
Effect—Blue Shield announced a 60-day delay in the massive increase. Says CNA/NNU Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro:
It’s not hard to connect the dots here between nurses and patients turning up the heat on Blue Shield’s barricaded doorstep the same day it agrees to a brief reprieve in its egregious rate increase.
Kerry Abukhalaf, who brought her son to the rally, says, “Our insurance is completely not worth the price. We pay almost half what we pay for rent.”
California Insurers Reject More Than Quarter of All Claims
A new study by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) finds that California’s largest private insurance companies continue to deny more than one-fourth of all claims and two firms rejected about 40 percent of submitted claims.
CNA/NNU Co-President DeAnn McEwen says the rejection rates show one reason why:
medical bills are a prime source of personal bankruptcies as doctors and hospitals will push patients and their families to make up what the insurer denies.
For the first three quarters of 2010, seven California insurance giants rejected 13.1 million claims—26 percent of all claims submitted—a number only slightly below the 26.8 percent rate for 2009. The data, new findings by the Institute for Health and Socio-Economic Policy, the CNA/NNU research arm, is based on data from the California Department of Managed Health Care.
Are You Taking Part in the June 25 Health Care Rally?
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Union, health care and community activists from around the nation are set to converge on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., this week to tell Congress there is no time to waste in passing health care reform legislation that provides quality health care for all.
As a congressional hearing revealed last week, health care reform must also rein in the most outrageous and abusive practices of the private insurance industry.
The June 25 rally and lobby day sponsored by Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) is expected to be the largest ever health care rally. Click here for more rally information from HCAN and text “HEALTH” to 94553 to receive updates on fast-moving health care reform activities throughout the summer.
